


Proud To Be You And Me

by MercurialMagpie



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Coming Out, Gen, Queer History
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25012333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercurialMagpie/pseuds/MercurialMagpie
Summary: Steve is constantly discovering amazing new things about living in the future.
Relationships: Steve Rogers & Tony Stark
Kudos: 37
Collections: Gay Pride Month





	Proud To Be You And Me

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this was supposed to be posted in June, Queer Wrath Month, but things happened. *le sigh* Anyway, happy Wrath everyone, and Happy Birthday Steve!

Tony Stark spent his forty-second birthday very, very differently from his fortieth. And, honestly, all of the change was for the better. He wasn’t trying to push Pepper and Rhodey away, and so they were happy and celebratory with him. Instead of a massive crowd that was more interested in drinking his booze and cheering on his antics than acknowledging his milestone, he had his Science Bro and his childhood hero (and, dammit, Steve really was that amazing of a person). And, best of all, he’d gotten his nearly-dying out of the way for the year a couple of weeks earlier, so he could really _celebrate_ this “another year older” thing. 

Tony had, with Bruce’s sporadic help, been introducing Steve to modern culture and international cuisine since they’d all had shwarma together in the wake of that “nearly dying” thing, and today, a Saturday a couple weeks after his birthday (and a couple weeks before Steve’s. That was a conversation they needed to have), they had had lunch at a little Greek place Tony loved, and now somehow they were wandering The Lower East Side, chatting about everything and nothing. 

Only now, Tony was starting to notice that the crowd was mostly moving all in the same direction… and that there was a whole lot of glitter and rainbows on the people around them. He was starting to suspect something festive was happening. His suspicions only got stronger when a cluster of drag queens, and the attendant cloud of hairspray, passed them by.

Steve grabbed at Tony’s arm urgently. “Tony, those dames! They can’t-” Tony turned to look at Steve, eyebrow already raised, but Steve only looked concerned. “They can’t just be out on the street like that, they’ll get arrested! We’ve gotta-”

Tony couldn’t help it, he broke into a grin. “No, it’s alright, it’s fine. Guess we hadn’t gotten to-” He turned toward the nearest cluster of kids, who all had Pride flags either on their shirts or painted on their faces. “Hey, this is Pride, isn’t it? I lost track.”

Most of the kids (college kids, probably, and didn’t that make him feel old?) cheered or chanted slogans, but one kid stepped up with a serious nod. “Today is the Pride Rally, and next weekend is the parade, which, based on last year, will probably last all day next Sunday. Are you in from out of town?”

One of his friends shoved him with her shoulder. “Dumbass! That’s Tony Stark.” She paused, clearly reviewing what she’d just said. “Holy shit, you’re Tony Stark! Are you going to the Rally? Do you have anything to say to the gay community?” She pulled out her phone and turned on its camera.

Tony grinned. “Well, maybe to the community, maybe to the rest of the world...” The girl looked incandescent with excitement as she started the video recording. Tony looked directly at the lens. “Actually, maybe I’ll direct this at the media. Because, you know, I’ve never made any secret of my orientation. But every time you folks get a photo of me half naked with a man, or coming out of a hotel room with a man, it’s always some ‘gay experimentation’ or a ‘gay fling’.” He made the air quotes viciously, like he wanted to stab someone with them. “No, it’s not. Let me make this clear. I was, am, and always will be, bisexual. Tony. Stark. Is. Bisexual.”

“Bi… sexual?” Steve’s voice was little better than a croak, but Tony and the cameragirl both swung around to face him anyway. He looked like he’d been hit in the side of the head with Mjolnir, but a smile was starting to creep in too. “As in, both? Men and women?” The smile was definitely taking over. “That’s a thing people are? There’s a word for it?” His eyes, which had been gazing off to an unknown distance, focused on Tony, and his grin beamed brighter than the June sun. “Hey, Tony, guess what? I think I’m bisexual!” He laughed in clear delight and relief.

Tony couldn’t help grinning back, but he knew Steve would want a private moment to adjust, so he gestured the cameragirl’s attention back to him. “And in case anyone was wondering, that’s why we still have Pride parades and festivals every year. Not just to honor all the brave people who came before us, who paved this path we’re on, but because there’s always people learning new words, and sometimes they realize that word fits them, and they’re not the only person in the world to feel this way. And we’ll be here for them, with a rainbow flag and way too much glitter. Happy Pride, New York!” He flashed a peace sign, and the girl hit the button to stop recording.

She looked down at her phone, did a little happy dance, and looked back up at them. “This video is going to go _so_ viral. Oh em gee, thank you so much! Can I hug you?” Tony held out his arms, and she bounced over and wrapped her arms around him, then ran to catch up with her friends.

Tony smiled at the gate attendant as they paid and went through, then gestured Steve towards the activists’ booths. “Right, so, beginning at the beginning. Late 60s, West Village. Queer club called the Stonewall Inn. I’m guessing you know how things were back in the day.” He threw a smirk at Steve, who grinned ruefully back. “Yeah. Anyway, cops come by, hassling folks, like they do, and some of the ladies decided they’d had enough, and started throwing bricks. It escalated from there, ended up making the news, and starting a movement. And we’ve made a whole lot of progress since, too. Homosexuality isn’t classified as a disease or a mental disorder anymore, there’s a bunch more labels like bisexual and asexual, heck, in New York or New Hampshire you could marry a man today. Well, Monday, there’s still paperwork, but you know what I mean.” He realized he’d built up to waving his hands around, and shoved them awkwardly into his jeans pockets.

Steve was grinning wildly, and bouncing on his toes like he was on a pogo stick, his eyes wide as he drank in everyone and everything around him. “This is amazing! Just… incredible, really! Is that… adoption services?” He was off and investigating, and they spend the next couple of hours with Steve moving from booth to booth, asking questions, drinking in answers, breathing in glitter… and Tony trailing along, answering the questions, and internally squealing in glee that he was the one to show all this to Steve, to help put that beaming grin on his face.

Eventually, though, Tony could hear Steve’s stomach start to growl again. “Hey, there are food carts over there. What am I getting you?” 

Steve blushed at his ever-present appetite, but ambled over that way anyway. “Hmm, maybe a corn dog? Or two? But only if you get something too. What’s this ‘fried dough’ like?”

A few minutes later, they were standing around, enjoying their snacks, when next to them, a girl rushed up to her friend. “Ohm’god, Jai is about to do his speech, c’mon, we gotta go!”

Tony turned to Steve. “You want to go and see the speeches? We can come back to the activist stuff after if you want.”

Steve shrugged. “Sure, sounds good. But who’s this speaker?”

Tony gestured them into the crowd around the bandshell. “Jai? He’s from Queer Eye.” Steve raised an eyebrow and mouthed the words ‘queer eye,’ and Tony babbled an explanation. “Well, technically, it’s called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, but they’ve had a couple of straight women and at least one gay guy, so the name doesn’t entirely apply. Anyway, it’s a tv show, reality tv, every week these five gay guys pick a person, who’s been nominated, don’t worry, they don’t just grab people off the street, and they go to his house, and they help him get a better wardrobe, and they give him a hair cut and a shave, make him look his best, they redecorate his house, teach him to cook a couple cool meals, just generally get him a lot closer to his best self. I haven’t watched much of it myself, but I hear it can be pretty inspiring, and I know it’s helped acceptance a lot, especially in like the heartland and the Bible Belt.” By this point they had wormed their way nearly to the front of the audience (Tony could admit at least to himself that he was short enough to want to be close to the stage, no matter the performance) and they settled in.

Jai’s speech was moving and the end was met with resounding applause, but he didn’t send everyone away immediately afterward. (Tony probably should have seen this coming, honestly.) “And, I’m told, we have a couple of unexpected celebrities here with us this afternoon.” Jai gestured in the general direction of Tony and Steve, who waved back, eliciting a cheer from the rest of the crowd. “Would either of you like to say something, since we’ve got this captive audience?” The crowd cheered again, and Tony turned to Steve with a raised eyebrow.

Steve grinned, his “I’m taking that as a challenge” grin, and headed for the bandstand, the crowd parting before him. He ignored the stairs in favor of jumping directly up onto the stage, and took the microphone from Jai with a smile. “Hello, New York!” The cheer this time could probably be heard in Queens, and Steve caught sight of more than a few camera ‘phones pointed at him, but he put that out of his mind, and let his heart speak instead. “This- this gathering, this family in front of me, I don’t think I ever could have imagined it way back when. We didn’t even have words for half the folks I’ve seen here today. Tony’s been telling me a little about the history, about the Stonewall Inn and the ladies who rioted so that people would finally acknowledge them _as_ ladies, and I’m grateful to them. I’m grateful to every one of you who’s standing here, unafraid to be yourself. I’m proud of every single one of us, speaking our truth even if it’s scary.” 

He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, thinking back, then opened them and gazed out at the sea of faces in front of him. “You know, when I was a kid, I thought there was something wrong with me. I knew I liked fellas as well as dames, but that was crazy, right? Either you liked dames, and wanted to chase skirts like Chico Marx, or you were a deviant. A sodomite, doomed to Hell for liking fellas. How could anyone possibly be both? So I told myself it was just that I was an artist, just an aesthetic appreciation. And then I slept through a few decades of amazing, incredible change, and woke up in this whole new century. And today, along comes Tony Stark, probably the smartest person I will ever talk to, and he says that not only does he also like both, but so do plenty of other people, enough that it has its own name, its own Pride flag, and, well...” He paused, swallowing down happy tears, and gave the audience a slightly watery smile. “I’m not crazy. I’m not alone. I’m not going to Hell if I fall in love with a man, and… It’s like this weight, that I’ve been carrying half my life, is just _gone_ , and I feel so much freer. So much lighter. I can be true to myself in a way I didn’t even know existed, and I want that for every single person in the world. I hope someday soon everyone can be this free, this light, this surrounded by love and community and Pride. Happy Pride, everyone!” He handed the microphone back to Jai and jumped off the stage, where he was immediately enveloped in a giant group hug.

Over the laughing and crying of the people near him, he heard Tony call out, “What, you expect me to top that? Not likely!” and laugh. The crowd laughed again, and cheered, and then started dispersing a bit, spreading out to the food and craft stalls. Tony caught Steve by the elbow before he could even go looking for him. “You really are ridiculously good at those impromptu speeches, aren’t you?”

Steve shrugged, but he couldn’t help smiling too. “I dunno, I guess I was moved. Felt pretty good, though.” He bit his lip and contrived to look through his lashes at Tony. He was nervous, but flying high enough on that speech and its reception that he knew he needed to do this now. “Hey, Tony? Can I take you out on a date?” He would never forget the look of excitement and wonder on Tony’s face as he accepted, and they moved together into this bright new future.


End file.
